The Cole Protocol, otherwise known as United Nations Space Command Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1 is a command enacted by Vice Admiral Preston Cole to prevent the Covenant from finding the location of Earth. Essentially, it is an order preventing Covenant retrieval of data that contains the location of Earth, and forbids retreating vessels from setting a direct slipspace course to Earth, as the Covenant are able to track Slipspace travel and find Earth's location. The policy also states that to prevent capture, any UNSC or Human vessel is to self destruct, after wiping all data matrices, to prevent the advance of the Covenant.
All UNSC personnel were commanded to read the Cole Protocol under NAVCOM UNSC Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1.
The Protocol
Excerpt from Halo: The Fall of Reach:
Article 1
United Nations Space Command Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1
Encryption Code: Red Public Key: file/ rst light/ From: UNSC/NAVCOM Fleet H.T. Ward To: ALL UNSC PERSONNEL Subject: General Order 098831A-1 ("The Cole Protocol ) Classification: RESTRICTED (BGX Directive)
The Cole Protocol
To safeguard the Inner Colonies and Earth, all UNSC vessels or stations must not be captured with intact navigation databases that may lead Covenant forces to human civilian population centers. If any Covenant forces are detected:
- Activate selective purge of databases on all ship-based and planetary data networks.
- Initiate triple-screen check to ensure all data has been erased and all backups neutralized.
- Execute viral data scavengers (Download from UNSCTTP://EPWW:COLEPROTOCOL/Virtualscav/fbr.091)
- If retreating from Covenant forces, all ships must enter Slipstream space with randomized vectors NOT directed toward Earth, the Inner Colonies, or any other human population center.
- In case of imminent capture by Covenant forces, all UNSC vessels MUST self-destruct.
Violation of this directive will be considered TREASON and pursuant to UNSC Military law articles JAG 845-P and JAG 7556-L, such violations are punishable by life imprisonment or execution.
*It should be noted that Lieutenant Wagner broke Article 1 but was later pardoned.
Article 2
This article is never directly stated, though Captain Keyes uses it while his ship is crashing on Installation 04. Captain Keyes says "I'm initiating the Cole Protocol, Article 2. We're abandoning the Autumn. That means you, too, Cortana." Later saying, "Destruction or capture of a shipboard AI is absolutely unacceptable."[1]
It is possible that Article 2 governs protocol in terms of abandoning a vessel. Article 2 could be theorized to mandate the removal, not destruction, of a shipboard AI if the ship in question will still be extant and it's crew able to protect the AI in question. This does seem to contradict Article 1 of the Cole Protocol which states that ships in danger of being overtaken by Covenant forces must self-destruct.
This could also imply that Article 2 directs personnel, or at least those with sensitive information, to avoid capture. Whilst it is not apparent to what lengths UNSC personnel are to go to ensure this, apparently in the case of AI's the worst case scenario only allows them to be hidden rather than terminated. Strangely, in First Strike there does not seem to be any attempt to recover any potentially surviving AI's.
Subsection 7
Subsection 7: No [captured] Covenant craft may be taken to human controlled space without an exhaustive search for tracking systems that could lead the Covenant to Human bases.
Few had even heard of subsection seven because it was little more than a technicality, before the Ascendant Justice was captured. This was due to the chances of capturing even a severely crippled covenant ship, as its crew would activate their self-destruct anyway. Because the humans could not completely search the Ascendant Justice, they instead planned to take it to Reach and try to return with a more prepared team.
*Note the number 7 in the subsection title.
Usage
The Core Protocol's core aim is to prevent the Covenant from locating the precise vectors of Earth or any of the other remaining UNSC colonies. As such, is usage is universal - from warships, to freighters, to even stationary space stations in inertial orbit. For structures that are incapable of leading Covenant forces to a colony, the purging of their navigational databanks is still mandatory, and self-destruct options exist to prevent the capture of any remaining data or crew.
Sources
- ^ Halo: The Flood, page 25